Evolution: frog adaptation (Evolution)

by David Turell, Monday, September 18, 2017, 15:34 (490 days ago)@ dhw

dhw: Since we see the evolution of apes to hominins to humans to sapiens instead of direct creation of sapiens, and we see the evolution of pre-whales to whales, and we see the evolution of countless other species, lifestyles and natural wonders with no conceivable connection to the brain of Homo sapiens, perhaps it was your God’s preference to let evolution run its own course.

DAVID: Your proposal ignores the obvious increasing complexity shown in evolution, which requires foresight and planning by a designing mind, an evolution which ends in the human brain, the most complex evolved organ so far. Animals do not have the demonstrated ability to change autonomously beyond minor adaptations.

dhw: Once again: my proposal attributes the obvious increasing complexity to a process of innovation that requires a perhaps God-given intelligence to respond to and exploit new opportunities. I have no trouble accepting that the human brain is the most complex evolved organ so far. That doesn’t mean your God designed life and evolution for the sake of the human brain. I have agreed many times that the capacity for major adaptations and innovations has not been demonstrated, which is why it is a hypothesis, as unproven as (though far more logical than) the hypothesis that an unknown, hidden and sourceless intelligence preprogrammed or dabbled eight stages of whale, monarch butterflies’ reproduction and navigation, and weaverbirds’ nests in order to produce the human brain.

Note my bold: do you agree intelligent planning is required for the increasing complexity?